‘Mayor of Kingstown’ Recap, Episode 7: ‘My Way’

Over the past few weeks Mayor of KingstownI've noticed a growing awareness among the show's supporting characters that Mike McLuskey – the main character they've built their entire fictional lives around – may be the cause of all their problems, rather than the solution. We see this several times in this week's episode, most notably when prison guard Kevin Jackson tells Mike that his boss Torres has another shipment of drugs arriving in his gas truck. Mike tells Kevin not to worry about anyone finding out he's giving away inside information, saying, “If any of this gets on their radar, I'll deal with it.” Kevin, a smart young man, replies, “I hear the words you say. They're just words.”

Words were all Mike could ever offer. Sometimes it saves him from trouble. Previously, when ADA Evelyn Foley accused him of missing a witness in her grand jury case, Mike was able to easily get away with it. “There are things I don't do.” Or, to put it another way: He doesn't do much at all. What can Evelyn accuse him of? Grumbling about cops and criminals?

However, as inspiring as it is to hear so many of Kingston's residents speak out loud the truth about Mike, it does little to help this particular episode, the weakest of the season. As is often the case with prestige crime dramas when they reach the end of a storyline, this week Mayor of Kingstown“My Way” is oversaturated with characters and plot. However, he's also hesitant to push anything towards resolution with three more episodes left to fill. This is not bad episode; it's just not particularly satisfying. For the most part, it feels like a 50-minute reminder of history.

The only significant spike in action is due to drug delivery. Acting on Mike's orders (or “grumbling suggestion”), Frank Moses orders his men to stop the shipment, shoot the driver, steal the drugs, and burn the truck. What Frank doesn't realize, however, is that this is all part of a larger plan to link him directly to his gang's crimes. Mike is determined to guide Evelyn to the “whale” she needs, now that her case against KPD Lieutenant Ian Ferguson has failed. In exchange, Mike expects Evelyn to free Kyle.

I have a couple of problems with the plot development. First of all, I hate it when a show introduces a new character as smart, charismatic and powerful as Frank Moses – an isolated, untouchable kingpin – and then immediately forces him to make a bunch of stupid mistakes that could be his downfall. I just don't believe the Frank we met at the beginning of this season would have succumbed to the deception. Mike McLuskeyof all people.

I should also renew my complaint from last week's review that in order to keep the audience guessing, Mayor of Kingstown The authors have not made it clear what Frank Moses' organization and the Colombian cartel are actually doing. Considering the attempted attack on Bunny last week, it seemed possible. likely, but it is possible that Frank could be in cahoots with the Colombians. This week, however, when viewed alone, away from Mike, it becomes more apparent that Frank legitimately wants revenge on his rivals for burning the train.

Likewise, the presence of dead Colombians at the site of the railroad siege suggested that Cortez's cartel bosses may have hung him and his soldiers to dry. But after Frank ambushes a shipment of Colombians to the prison, Cortez becomes the assistant who is immediately called in. He breaks into Warden Nina Hobbs's very nice home, somehow bypassing its many advanced security features, ties her up, and demands she find out who knew about Torres' truck schedule. (Do I think Mike will be able to stop Nina from touching Kevin and thereby save Kevin from Cortez? I certainly don't.)

The Nina subplot in this episode is another case of “too much and not enough.” Like Frank, she was introduced early in the season as a seasoned and tenacious professional who gets things done. Now, with just a few episodes left in what could be the series' final season, we're getting some important new information about who Nina is. We learn that one of the reasons she is allied with the Colombians is because they threatened her adult daughter. (Cortez, pushing Nina, shows her the photographs they recently took of her child.) Apparently, many of her stubborn actions – such as sending a would-be assassin to kill Frank at the police station – were driven by her need to prove her worth. She's actually not as big of a boss as we've been led to believe.

There's more to this episode. Robert suggests to Ian that if they just killed Mike, their lives could be a lot easier. Instead, Ian got Robert blackout drunk and then pretended Robert had been poisoned by car exhaust fumes in his garage. (As stupid as I find Mike, I can't say I blame Ian for this choice. Mike is certainly ineffective, but he's not a psychopathic drunk with a temper.)

Additionally, Merle escapes from prison after being transferred from AdSeg to GenPop. Now – as he snarls at Kyle before transferring – he can threaten the McLuskey family from the outside. Before he leaves, he comes out of line well, telling Kyle that he won't see the ex-cop breathing “free air” again because “Shit ain't in McLuskey's favor.” For his part, Kyle argues that the McCluskey family will forever remain in Kingstown history and Merle will never be anything more than a “footnote.”

However, it's worth noting that when Cindy later comes to Kyle's cell to inform him of Mike's plan to free him, he warns the guard, “Stay away from my brother.” He adds: “Mike's attempts lead to the death of people.” And this comes from his relatives! Damn, Mike's reputation is getting more tarnished every day.

• I did some digging online to see if there were any rumors about a fifth season of this series, given that it looks like a lot will be left unresolved after the next three episodes. All I could find was this one quote from Jeremy Renner at a pop culture convention where he said that Mayor of Kingstown The team had a “blunt ending” in mind, which would require a fifth season. However, there is no news about an extension yet.

• Even though this episode is quite confusing, it still has some major strengths that make Mayor of Kingstown one of the most watchable and least annoying shows created by Taylor Sheridan. Tough guy deadpan dialogue is one of those strong points – like the moment when Ian looks at a sullen Mike and says, “What's that look like?” The ever-stern Mike's curt response: “It's my damn face.”

• Another good scene: Frank Moses sits with his right-hand man LJ (Verlon Brown) and recalls how the takeover of black neighborhoods in Detroit (with “words on a piece of paper” and “men with plans”) led them to their current lives as criminal masterminds. This series could have used more moments like this that acknowledge the reality of its setting rather than moments that play the usual notes of sappy sensationalism.

• On the other hand – and this is another example of how there's too much juggling in this episode – I don't know if we need any scenes involving Officer Breen, a lecherous prison guard. We're clearly building up to some terrible incident between him and Cindy. I'm not looking forward to it.